Teomachia Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Short description of play
• Components
  • 24 Element cards
  • 120 Prayer cards
  • 20 Myth cards from 4 mythologies
  • 8 Deity boards
  • 74 Worshipper tokens
  • 6 Miracle tokens
• Setup - Basic Game
  • Laying out the components
  • Building the starting decks
  • Finishing setup
• Gameplay
  • Initiative and order
  • 1. Starting phase
  • 2-4. Three bidding phases
  • Playing deed cards
  • 5. Battle phase
  • 6. Settlement phase
  • 7. Prayer phase
• Making change for worshippers
• Playing cards in response
• Laying out power cards
• Drawing cards and shuffling decks
• Participation in a deal
• Discard pile
• Full Game
  • Setup
  • Deity cards
  • Changes in the course of a deal
  • Myth phase
  • Using myth cards and attributes
  • Heroes
• Variant without elimination
• Changes to the operation and text of some cards
  • Removed cards
  • Opponent / Chosen opponent
  • Showing them to the opponent
  • Change of text
  • Gods
• Glossary

Introduction

Short description of play

The game begins with a draft, in which players choose the prayer cards that make up their starting decks. After building the decks, players choose their deities, and thereby the mythologies they will represent.

In the main part of the game we play a series of deals. In each of them:

• everyone draws up to 5 cards from their deck into their hand
• the elements layout is placed in the middle of the table: 3 face-up and 2 face-down cards from the elements deck
• players put followers into their stakes, creating the deal's initial stake
• then, in three successive rounds of bidding, players raise the stake, trying at the same time to judge the strength of their own hand against what the opponents hold
• during bidding, effect cards can be played, which allow gaining additional information, drawing additional cards, destroying the opponent's worshippers and many other interesting plays
• if at least two players remain in the deal after bidding, they must fight a battle
• in the battle players play attack cards, trying to make their followers stronger than the opponent's followers
• the winner gains new worshippers, the losers lose the ones they have
• after the deal ends, players buy new prayer cards and myth cards, preparing for the next deal

The game ends when only one player has worshippers left.

Components

24 Element cards

These cards provide the deities with the power needed to play other cards.

Each such card has:

1. a background, determining the card's sphere
2. symbols of order or chaos, from one to three

120 Prayer cards

Players' decks are built from prayer cards.

These cards are divided into 2 kinds: deed cards (effects, attacks and places) and power cards (identical to the element cards).

Each deed card has:

1. a type
2. requirements that must be met in order to play it
3. a border, assigning the card to a particular sphere
4. text describing its action

20 Myth cards from 4 mythologies

Players buy these powerful cards during play, paying for them with miracle tokens.

Each such card has:

1. the mythology it belongs to
2. a cost in miracle tokens
3. text describing its action

8 Deity boards

The deities the players embody.

Each such card has:

1. the mythology it is assigned to
2. an attribute, i.e. the deity's special ability
3. a demand, i.e. a way of drawing miracle tokens

74 Worshipper tokens

They represent the players' followers in the game.

They are divided into three kinds:

• prophets, worth 10 points of strength
• priests, worth 5 points of strength
• faithful, worth 2 points of strength

6 Miracle tokens

With these tokens players buy myth cards.

Setup - Basic Game

The following description concerns the basic game, which we recommend for the first few games. The full game, in which the gods take part, is described later in the rulebook.

Laying out the components

• Give each player 3 PROPHETS, 5 PRIESTS and 8 FAITHFUL. They become each player's starting community.
• Put the remaining worshipper tokens aside. This creates the bank.
• Shuffle the prayer deck and place it in the middle of the table.

The miracle tokens, deity boards and myth cards will be useful in the full game - for now put them back in the box.

Building the starting decks

Building the players' starting decks takes place over several rounds. In each of them:

• Players draw the appropriate number of cards into their hand. The number of cards depends on the number of players and is given in the table at the bottom of the page.
• Each player chooses one card from their hand. Place it face down in front of you. You may look through your own face-down cards while building the deck.
• Pass the remaining cards to the player on your left. Pass the cards face down. Do this only when all players have chosen a card.
• Repeat choosing and passing cards until each player has one card left in hand. Do not pass the last card - instead, set it aside face down.

We play as many rounds as needed for each player to collect 12 cards. The number of rounds depends on the number of players (see the table below).

Then each player chooses 8 cards for their starting deck. They set the remaining four aside, face down.

Deck building - number of rounds and cards

Players	Rounds
2 players	6 rounds of 3 cards
3 players	4 rounds of 4 cards
4 players	3 rounds of 5 cards

Finishing setup

• Shuffle the cards set aside back into the prayer deck.
• Lay out the prayer track according to the picture below: 2 cards that cost a PRIEST, 2 cards that cost a FAITHFUL, 2 free cards (from left to right, next to the prayer deck).
• Shuffle the elements deck and place it in the middle of the table.
• Players shuffle their decks and place them in front of them.

Gameplay

The game consists of a series of successive deals. It lasts until only one player remains who has enough worshippers to continue playing.

Initiative and order

Each phase of the deal is begun by the player with the initiative. Then the turn moves clockwise. In the first deal the initiative goes to a randomly chosen player, afterwards it passes to the winner of the deal.

1. Starting phase

• Players draw 5 cards into their hand. If you already have cards in hand, draw so that you have five. If you do not have enough cards in your deck, draw as many as you can, then shuffle your discard pile - it becomes your new deck, from which you draw the missing cards.
• Lay out in order 3 face-up and 2 face-down cards from the elements deck in the middle of the table. These cards form the elements layout. If there are not 5 cards in the deck, gather all 24 cards and shuffle them before laying out the elements layout.
• Each player puts into their stake as many faithful from their community as the current conflict level. At the start of the game the conflict level is 1, and then it rises by 1 for each reshuffle of the elements deck. The conflict level can never exceed 3 and does not rise after reaching that value.

LOSING AND WINNING: If you have too few worshippers to put in the deal's initial stake, you drop out of the game. If only one player remains in the game, they become the winner.

2-4. Three bidding phases

We play three successive bidding phases. At the beginning of each of them, except the first, reveal the next card of the elements layout.

During bidding, each player may (on their turn):

• Play any number of effect and place cards. Effect cards are discarded immediately after use. The exception is effects with the keyword "lasting" (trwały) - these stay on the table and work until the end of the deal. Place cards remain laid out in front of you and are not discarded until they are destroyed. When playing a place card you must put on it the worshipper token indicated, from your community (outside the stake). If you do not have the appropriate token, you cannot play the place card.

At the end of your turn you must take an action. The available actions depend on what happened before:

If nobody has raised the stake yet, you may:

• Wait. You add no tokens to the stake; the turn passes to the next player.
• Raise. Add one chosen worshipper token from your community to your stake.

If the stake has been raised, you may:

• Call. Add the missing worshipper tokens from your community to your stake so that your stake is identical to the stake of the player who has the most tokens in it.
• Raise. First call the stake, then add to it one more chosen worshipper token from your community.

You may always:

• Withdraw. Place the cards from your hand on your stake, face down. Until the start of the settlement phase you do not take part in the deal. Your turn in bidding is skipped and you do not take part in the battle.

Playing deed cards

Before playing a deed card (effect, attack or place), you must meet the requirements listed in its upper left corner.

ASPECT OF CHAOS: Count all the black chaos symbols on the face-up cards of the elements layout and on the power cards you have laid out. You must have at least as many as the number on the card.

ASPECT OF ORDER: In this case you must count the white order symbols instead of chaos symbols.

SPHERE SYMBOLS: Counting the face-up cards of the elements layout and the power cards you have laid out, you must have at least as many power cards of the given sphere as there are symbols of that sphere on the card.

If you do not meet the requirements, before playing the deed card you may lay out additional power cards that will allow you to meet them. Power cards are not used up - a card once laid out can be used repeatedly until the end of the given deal.

The turn passes to the next player only when you have taken your action.

Each successive bidding phase ends when one of the following conditions is met:

• The turn passes through all players and none of them raises the stake. In other words, all players decide to wait.
• The turn returns to the last player who raised, and no other player has raised the stake higher. All players have either called the last raise or withdrawn from the deal.
• One player remains in the deal. All other players have withdrawn from the deal. In this case go straight to the settlement phase without playing a battle.

After the phase ends, go on to the next bidding phase, revealing the next card of the elements layout. If all cards are already revealed (this is the third bidding phase), go instead to the battle phase.

Remember: Each phase is begun by the player with the initiative, regardless of whose turn the previous phase ended on.

DESPERATION RULE: If you want to call the stake and do not have the tokens needed for it, you may add tokens from the bank to the stake according to the desperation rule. From then on, every time you lack some kind of token to call, you may use tokens from the bank, placing them next to your stake (these tokens must remain separate from the worshippers in your stake which you added from your own community). In the settlement phase (regardless of the result of the battle) you must discard the tokens added to the stake thanks to the desperation rule. If any card would cause any of the tokens added in this way to be returned to your community, discard it to the bank instead. The desperation rule cannot be used to raise.

5. Battle phase

If after three bidding phases more than one player remains in the deal, the remaining participating players fight a battle.

On your turn you may:

• Play any number of attacks. In one battle you may play only attacks belonging to one sphere. Playing attacks from different spheres is allowed only if another card makes it possible.
• Pass. If you cannot or do not want to play an attack on your turn.

Attacks manipulating your stake or your opponents' stakes work immediately. Attacks adding points of strength are resolved in the settlement phase. The battle ends when all players participating in it pass in succession.

CALCULATING STRENGTH: We calculate the strength of each player participating in the battle by adding the strength of the attack cards he played and the strength of the worshippers who still remain in his stake. Prophets count for 10, priests for 5, faithful for 2.

Example. The first player played Plague (Zaraza; removing all the faithful from the opponent's community) and Quicksand (Ruchome piaski; +6 strength). The second player played Web of Lightning (Sieć piorunów; +7 strength) and Unity (Jedność; +1 strength for each worshipper in the stake).

First player: 6 (Quicksand) + 23 (stake: 10+5+8) = 29 points of strength. Second player: 7 + 2 (cards) + 15 (stake: 10+5) = 24.

So the first player has higher strength and wins the deal.

6. Settlement phase

• Determine the winners and losers. If only one player remained in the deal, that player automatically wins. Otherwise the winner is the player who achieved the highest strength in the battle (see the box). If there is more than one such player, all the tied players become winners.
• Players play effect cards. In the settlement phase you may play only effects whose text allows it. Cards are played in order of initiative.
• Losers discard their stakes to the bank.
• Losers damage all the place cards they have. Mark damaged place cards by turning them sideways. If a card was already damaged before, discard it onto your discard pile, and discard the worshipper token on it to the bank.
• If there is only one winner, they draw an additional priest token from the bank to their community.
• If there is only one winner and they have no prophet in their community, they draw a prophet token from the bank. Only your community matters - if there is no prophet there, you draw the token even if you have prophets in your stake.
• Winners return their stakes to their communities.
• The winner of the deal takes the initiative. If there is more than one winner, the player who currently has the initiative passes it to the winner who sits closest - clockwise.
• Players discard cards onto their discard piles. Discard all cards from your hand, laid out power cards and lasting effects played in this deal.
• Discard the cards of the elements layout onto the pile next to the elements deck. Face-down cards are revealed before being discarded.

7. Prayer phase

• Players in turn draw one card from the prayer track and put it on their discard pile. (1) You pay for a card by discarding to the bank the same worshipper token as the one above it. If there is no token there, the card is free. If you do not like any of the cards on the track, you may instead draw the top card of the prayer deck for free. Drawing a card is mandatory.
• Check whether the last free card was drawn. (2) If not, remove it from the game, putting it in the box.
• Move all the remaining cards to the end of the track. (3) Move the cards to the right so that no empty spaces remain between them.
• Fill the beginning of the track with cards from the prayer deck. (4) Lay out the cards in order, starting from the left edge of the track.

(Diagram in the original: row 1 shows the track with cards A-F, to the right of the prayer deck; cards B and D are taken. Row 2: the last free card, F, was not taken and is removed from the game. Row 3: the remaining cards A, C, E are moved to the right end of the track. Row 4: new cards 1, 2, 3 from the prayer deck are laid out from the left edge.)

After the prayer phase ends, begin the next deal.

Making change for worshippers

If at any moment of the game your community runs out of priests or faithful, and you still have tokens of higher strength, you must make change.

• If you have no priests, and still have a prophet: discard one prophet and draw 2 priests from the bank.
• If you have no faithful, and still have a priest: discard one priest and draw 2 faithful from the bank.

You make change for worshippers immediately at the moment when any type runs out in your community, even if it happens in the middle of playing a card. This means you can make change also while playing an attack such as Sacrifice (Ofiara), which allows adding tokens to the stake.

Playing cards in response

Some effect cards begin with the words "play when an opponent 'action'". Such effects can be played only in response to the indicated action of the opponent, but regardless of whose turn it is. Before playing such an effect you may lay out additional power cards. If several players want to play a card in response to some action, they do so in clockwise order starting from the player who currently had the floor.

Laying out power cards

You may lay out power cards at any moment on your turn (in the bidding or battle phase), or before playing a card in response. Laid-out power cards stay in front of you until the end of the deal and can be used repeatedly.

Drawing cards and shuffling decks

If for any reason (drawing cards at the start of a deal, the action of effects) you must draw a card and your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile - it becomes your new deck. This also applies to effects that reveal successive cards from a deck.

Participation in a deal

Players who withdrew from the deal stop participating in bidding and do not take part in the battle. The effects of actions taken by other players in these phases do not affect them. If the text of a card played in one of these phases tells you to choose a player, you may choose only one of the players remaining in the deal.

Players who withdrew from the deal do, however, take part in the settlement phase and the prayer phase. At the start of the settlement phase they take the cards from their stake back into their hand. They may play them, and may also be the target of cards and effects played by other players.

Discard pile

Each player's discard pile is face up, but only its owner may look through it. This means the other players see only the top card of your pile. Before discarding cards after a deal, make sure the card on top is the one that will reveal the least information to your opponents.

Full Game

The full game introduces two additional elements: deity cards and myth cards.

Setup

Before starting deck building:

• Choose one deity card from each mythology.
• Give one such card to each player.
• Players take the remaining deities from the mythology they received. They place them face up in front of them.

Deck building itself proceeds in the same way as in the basic game. After deck building is finished:

• Players secretly choose one of their deities.
• When everyone has chosen, players place the chosen deities in front of them. Place the chosen card face up. Put the remaining deities back in the box.
• Players create their myth decks. Take all myth cards of your mythology, shuffle them and place them next to the deity card. Place the cards face up, but so that only the top card is visible. The miracle tokens should be placed next to the bank in a place accessible to all players.

Deity cards

Each deity has an attribute and a demand.

The attribute is an additional ability of the deity. Attributes are divided into two kinds:

• Passive. These attributes work throughout the whole game and change the rules applying to the given player.
• Activated. The player uses these attributes actively. They usually take the form "Remove 'token' to..." and before using them you must discard the indicated token from your community to the bank. Unless the text of the attribute says otherwise, it can be used only in the bidding phase, on your turn, and only once per deal.

The demand allows drawing miracle tokens. When you fulfil the condition in the demand, you draw such a token. In one deal you can draw at most one token.

Changes in the course of a deal

A deal proceeds in the same way as in the basic game, with two differences:

• After the prayer phase we additionally play the myth phase.
• At the beginning of two other phases, the first bidding phase and the battle phase, an additional stage is introduced in which myth cards and some of the attributes are used.

Myth phase

This phase ends each deal and takes place right after the prayer phase. In this phase each player, as usual in order of initiative, may take one of the following actions:

• Buy the myth card from the top of your myth deck. To buy a card, you must pay its cost in miracle tokens. After paying the cost, lay out the card in front of your deity.
• Move the card from the top of the myth deck to the bottom. In this way we reveal the next card of that deck. It will be possible to buy it only in the next deal.
• Leave the myth deck as it is.

Using myth cards and attributes

Each myth card contains information about the situation in which its ability is activated. When that condition is met, the player may use the card.

The text on some myth cards and attributes allows using them before the start of one of the phases. The use of such cards and attributes is decided in order of initiative before the start of the actual part of the given phase. After the actual part of the phase has begun, the opportunity is lost and these cards and attributes cannot be used until the next deal. Pay particular attention to this for cards used before the battle phase, where using such a card can have a significant influence on the result.

Heroes

Hero cards work on different rules than the other myth cards. After buying, place the hero card in front of you. It is inactive and its text does not work yet.

Before each battle you may add a laid-out hero to your stake. If you do so, the hero card activates and you may use its text.

When you lose a battle, all heroes in your stake die - put them in the box.

Variant without elimination

In the variant without elimination we fight for victory points (you can record them on a sheet of paper or use any markers).

The game proceeds according to the normal rules, but additionally at the end of the settlement phase:

• All winners of the deal receive 1 victory point. They take an additional victory marker from the bank and place it in front of them (or write the points down on paper).
• If any player has no worshippers, each of the winners receives an additional 3 points. If there is more than one such player, the additional points are awarded for each of them.
• Players whose communities are empty receive new followers. They draw 1 prophet, 2 priests and 4 faithful from the bank.

We play until one of the players gains 10 victory points.

In this variant players may use the desperation rule also when laying out their initial stake. If a player has too few faithful to enter the deal, they add the missing ones from the bank according to the desperation rule.

Changes to the operation and text of some cards

This rulebook is a corrected version of the rules you can find in the original box. Its main purpose is to make play possible for 3 or 4 players. Because Teomachia was originally a strictly two-player game, the texts on some cards require clarification. Below is a list of the cards that change in any way if you use the rules of this rulebook.

Removed cards

Remove 4 effect cards from the prayer deck (one for each of the elements). They will not be used in play. They are: Honor (Honor), Passion (Pasja), Truce (Rozejm) and Binding of the Spheres (Spętanie sfer).

Opponent / Chosen opponent

Every time the word "opponent" appears on a game element (card or deity board), it must be treated as if the text read "chosen opponent". This means that in a multiplayer game cards such as Plague (Zaraza) or Pandora's Box (Puszka Pandory) will affect only one chosen player. The cards in which this situation occurs are, of the prayer cards: Idźcie i nawracajcie, Nagła śmierć, Nienawiść, Perswazja, Podstęp, Pomieszanie zmysłów, Poznanie myśli, Prowokacja, Zaraza, and of the myth cards: CuChulainn, Fenris, Gae Bolga, Kodeks Hammurabiego, Lilith, Puszka Pandory and Wyrocznia Delficka.

Showing them to the opponent

Two of the cards (Pieśń wojenna and Wszechmoc) have text ordering you to reveal cards from your deck and show them to the opponent. In their case the cards must be revealed openly, showing them to all participants of the game.

Change of text

Two cards change their content to a greater degree in a multiplayer game. They are Pokój na ziemi and Lud boży. The new text is given below, together with (in parentheses) what the essence of the change is.

• Pokój na ziemi: Return all worshippers from your stake to your community and withdraw from the deal. You may not play this effect in the last bidding phase. (The card does not end the whole deal in a draw, but only allows the player who plays it to withdraw from it without loss.)
• Lud boży: Add a faithful to your stake. The strength of all priests and prophets taking part in the battle is 0. (The card works on all priests and prophets in the stakes of the players taking part in the battle.)

Gods

The changes also concern some god cards. For the most part they are connected with the text "opponent", which should be treated as "chosen opponent" (exactly as with such text on deed cards). This situation applies to Loki and Odin.

In the case of Marduk, the content of his attribute is limited compared to the original version of the game. To the text from the god's board add the sentence: You may not use this attribute in the last bidding phase.

The biggest changes concern Cernunnos. The former content of this deity's demand must be completely replaced with the following: Draw a miracle token after every deal in which you play at least three deed cards.

All gods with the new texts and layout are available on the publisher's website: www.wydawnictwofgh.com

Glossary

• RETURN (a worshipper) - Move a worshipper from a player's stake to his community.
• WORSHIPPER - General term for a prophet, priest or faithful.
• DRAW A CARD - If the text does not specify where to draw the card from, you take it from the top of your deck.
• CONTROL - You control all the power cards you have laid out, and also all the face-up cards of the elements layout. If the text of a card requires controlling a given number of order or chaos symbols, add up all such symbols on the power cards you can use. If the text of a card says that you additionally control some symbols, you may use them to play cards.
• DISCARD A CARD - Place it on the appropriate discard pile. For cards from players' decks, this is the discard pile of the card's owner. For other cards, it is the pile next to the deck the card came from.
• PLACE (a worshipper) - On a place card means that after playing it you must place the appropriate token from your community on that card. Worshippers lying on place cards do not count toward the stake.
• SPHERE - The element to which a power card or deed card belongs - water, fire, earth or air.
• STAKE - All the worshipper tokens put into the given deal by one of the players.
• LASTING (trwały) - In reference to an effect, means that it stays on the table until the end of the deal (until the end of the settlement phase).
• ELEMENTS LAYOUT - The shared element cards in the middle of the table.